The show generated controversy in London and New York City due to the inclusion of images of Myra Hindley and the Virgin Mary. It was criticised by New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani and others for attempting to boost the value of the work by showing it in institutions and public museums.[1]

There will be works of art on display in the Sensation exhibition which some people may find distasteful. Parents should exercise their judgment in bringing their children to the exhibition. One gallery will not be open to those under the age of 18.[2]

The opening of Sensation at the Royal Academy of Arts caused a public furore and a media frenzy, with both broadsheet and tabloid journalists falling over themselves to comment on the show's controversial images, and unprecedented crowds queuing up to see for themselves what all the fuss was about. Around a quarter of the RA's 80 academicians gave a warning that the exhibition was inflammatory. They and some members of the public complained about several other exhibits, notably the installations by Jake and Dinos Chapman, which were of child mannequins with noses replaced by penises and mouths in the form of an anus.

The Mothers Against Murder and Aggression protest group picketed the show, accompanied by Winnie Johnson, the mother of one of Hindley's victims.[3] They asked for the portrait, which is made up of hundreds of copies of a child's handprint, to be excluded to protect Johnson's feelings. Along with supporters she picketed the show's first day. Myra Hindley sent a letter from jail suggesting that her portrait be removed from the exhibition, reasoning that such action was necessary because the work was "a sole disregard not only for the emotional pain and trauma that would inevitably be experienced by the families of the Moors victims but also the families of any child victim."[4][5] Despite all the protest the painting remained hanging. Windows at Burlington House, the Academy's home, were smashed and two demonstrators hurled ink and eggs at the picture as a result, requiring it to be removed and restored. It was put back on display behind Perspex[6] and guarded by security men.

In a press conference on 16 September 1997, David Gordon, Secretary of the Royal Academy commented on the controversial portrait: "The majority view inside the Academy was that millions and millions of images of Myra Hindley have been reproduced in newspapers and magazines. Books have been written about the murders. Television programmes have been made. Hindley's image is in the public domain; part of our consciousness; an awful part of our recent social history; a legitimate subject for journalism – and for art."

The show was extremely popular with the general public, attracting over 300,000 visitors during its run,[6] helped by the media attention which the strong subject matter had received. The BBC described it as "gory images of dismembered limbs and explicit pornography".[7]

Sensation was shown at the Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof museum (30 September 1998 – 30 January 1999) and proved so popular that it was extended past its original closing date of 28 December 1998. For art critic Nicola Kuhn from Der Tagesspiegel, there was "no sensation about Sensation". She claimed that the Berlin audience found the yBa's work "more sad and serious than irreverent, funny and dazzling"[8]

The exhibition was shown in New York City at the Brooklyn Museum from 2 October 1999 to 9 January 2000. The New York City show was met with instant protest, centring on The Holy Virgin Mary by Chris Ofili, which had not provoked this reaction in London. While the press reported that the piece was "smeared", "splattered" or "stained" with elephant dung,[9][10] Ofili's work in fact showed a carefully rendered black Madonna decorated with a resin-covered lump of elephant dung. The figure is also surrounded by small collaged images of female genitalia from pornographic magazines; these seemed from a distance to be the traditional cherubim.

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who had seen the work in the catalogue but not in the show, called it "sick stuff" and threatened to withdraw the annual $7 million City Hall grant from the Brooklyn Museum hosting the show, because "You don't have a right to government subsidy for desecrating somebody else's religion."[6]Cardinal John O'Connor, the Archbishop of New York, said, "one must ask if it is an attack on religion itself," and the president of America's biggest group of Orthodox Jews, Mandell Ganchrow, called it "deeply offensive".[11]William A. Donohue, President of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said the work "induces revulsion".[6] Giuliani started a lawsuit to evict the museum, and Arnold Lehman, the museum director, filed a federal lawsuit against Giuliani for a breach of the First Amendment.[11]

The United States House of Representatives passed a nonbinding resolution to end federal funding for the museum on 3 October 1999, and New York City did stop funding to the Brooklyn Museum. On 1 November, federal judge Nina Gershon ordered the City not only to restore the funding that was denied to the Museum, but also to refrain from continuing its ejectment action. On 16 December 1999, a 72-year-old man was arrested for criminal mischief after smearing the Ofili painting with white paint, which was soon removed.[14]
The museum produced a yellow stamp, saying the artworks on show "may cause shock, vomiting, confusion, panic, euphoria and anxiety."[11] and Ofili's painting was shown behind a Plexiglass screen, guarded by a museum attendant and an armed police officer.[13] Jeffrey Hogrefe, art critic for the New York Observer, commented about the museum, "They wanted to get some publicity and they got it. I think it was pretty calculated."[6] The editor-in-chief of the New York City Art & Auction magazine, Bruce Wolmer,said: "When the row eventually fades the only smile will be on the face of Charles Saatchi, a master self-promoter."[11]

The show was scheduled to open in June 1999 at the National Gallery of Australia, but was cancelled with the director, Brian Kennedy, saying that, although it was due to be funded by the Australian government, it was "too close to the market" since finance for the Brooklyn exhibition included $160,000 from Saatchi, who owned the work; $50,000 from Christie's, who had sold work for Saatchi; and $10,000 from dealers of many of the artists.[15] Kennedy said he was unaware of this when he accepted the show. Saatchi's contribution, the largest single one, was not disclosed by the Brooklyn Museum, until it appeared in court documents.[15] Similarly, when the show opened in London at the Royal Academy, there had been criticisms that it would raise the value of the work.[15]

1.
Brooklyn Museum
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The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum is New York Citys third largest in physical size, the museum initially struggled to maintain its building and collection, only to be revitalized in the late 20th century, thanks to major renovations. Significant areas of the collection include antiquities, specifically their collection of Egyptian antiquities spanning over 3,000 years, African, Oceanic, and Japanese art make for notable antiquities collections as well. American art is represented, starting at the Colonial period. Artists represented in the collection include Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, Norman Rockwell, Winslow Homer, Edgar Degas, Georgia OKeeffe, the museum also has a Memorial Sculpture Garden which features salvaged architectural elements from throughout New York City. The roots of the Brooklyn Museum extend back to the 1823 founding by Augustus Graham of the Brooklyn Apprentices’ Library in Brooklyn Heights, in 1890, under its director Franklin Hooper, Institute leaders reorganized as the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and began planning the Brooklyn Museum. The initial design for the Brooklyn Museum was four times as large as the actualized version, Daniel Chester French, the noted sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial, was the principal designer of the pediment sculptures and the monolithic 12. 5-foot figures along the cornice. The figures were created by 11 sculptors and carved by the Piccirilli Brothers, by 1920, the New York City Subway reached the museum with a subway station, this greatly improved access to the once-isolated museum from Manhattan and other outer boroughs. The Brooklyn Institutes director Franklin Hooper was the museums first director and he was followed by Philip Newell Youtz, Laurance Page Roberts, Isabel Spaulding Roberts, Charles Nagel, Jr. and Edgar Craig Schenck. Thomas S. Buechner became the director in 1960, making him one of the youngest directors in the country. Buechner oversaw a major transformation in the way the museum displayed art and brought some one thousand works that had languished in the museums archives and put them on display. Buechner played a role in rescuing the Daniel Chester French sculptures from destruction due to an expansion project at the Manhattan Bridge in the 1960s. The Brooklyn Museum changed its name to Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1997, on March 12,2004, the museum announced that it would revert to its previous name. In April 2004, the museum opened the James Polshek-designed entrance pavilion on the Eastern Parkway façade, in September 2014, Lehman announced that he was planning to retire around June 2015. In May 2015, Creative Time president and artistic director Anne Pasternak was named the Museums next director, member institutions occupy land or buildings owned by the City of New York and derive part of their yearly funding from the City. The Brooklyn Museum also supplements its earned income with funding from Federal and State governments, as well as donations by individuals. Major benefactors include Frank Lusk Babbott, the museum is the site of the annual Brooklyn Artists Ball which has included celebrity hosts such as Sarah Jessica Parker and Liv Tyler. The Brooklyn Museum exhibits collections that seek to embody the rich heritage of world cultures

2.
Royal Academy of Arts
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The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded through an act of King George III on 10 December 1768 with a mission to promote the arts of design in Britain through education and exhibition. Supporters wanted to foster a national school of art and to encourage appreciation, fashionable taste in 18th-century Britain was based on continental and traditional art forms, providing contemporary British artists little opportunity to sell their works. From 1746 the Foundling Hospital, through the efforts of William Hogarth, the success of this venture led to the formation of the Society of Artists of Great Britain and the Free Society of Artists. Both these groups were primarily exhibiting societies, their success was marred by internal factions among the artists. The combined vision of education and exhibition to establish a school of art set the Royal Academy apart from the other exhibiting societies. It provided the foundation upon which the Royal Academy came to dominate the art scene of the 18th and 19th centuries, supplanting the earlier art societies. Sir William Chambers, a prominent architect, used his connections with George III to gain royal patronage and financial support of the Academy, the painter Joshua Reynolds was made its first president. Francis Milner Newton was elected the first secretary, a post he held for two decades until his resignation in 1788, the instrument of foundation, signed by George III on 10 December 1768, named 34 founder members and allowed for a total membership of 40. William Hoare and Johann Zoffany were added to this list later by the King and are known as nominated members, among the founder members were two women, a father and daughter, and two sets of brothers. The Royal Academy was initially housed in cramped quarters in Pall Mall, although in 1771 it was given temporary accommodation for its library and schools in Old Somerset House, then a royal palace. In 1780 it was installed in purpose-built apartments in the first completed wing of New Somerset House, located in the Strand and designed by Chambers, the Academy moved in 1837 to Trafalgar Square, where it occupied the east wing of the recently completed National Gallery. These premises soon proved too small to house both institutions, in 1868,100 years after the Academys foundation, it moved to Burlington House, Piccadilly, where it remains. Burlington House is owned by the British Government, and used rent-free by the Royal Academy, the first Royal Academy exhibition of contemporary art, open to all artists, opened on 25 April 1769 and ran until 27 May 1769. 136 works of art were shown and this exhibition, now known as the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, has been staged annually without interruption to the present day. In 1870 the Academy expanded its programme to include a temporary annual loan exhibition of Old Masters. The range and frequency of these exhibitions have grown enormously since that time. Britains first public lectures on art were staged by the Royal Academy, led by Reynolds, the first president, a program included lectures by Dr. William Hunter, John Flaxman, James Barry, Sir John Soane, and J. M. W. Turner

3.
National Gallery of Australia
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The National Gallery of Australia is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory, it was established in 1967 by the Australian government as a public art museum. Prominent Australian artist Tom Roberts had lobbied various Australian prime ministers, starting with the first, Prime Minister Andrew Fisher accepted the idea in 1910, and the following year Parliament established a bipartisan committee of six political leaders—the Historic Memorials Committee. The Committee decided that the government should collect portraits of Australian governors-general, parliamentary leaders and this led to the establishment of what became known as the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board, which was responsible for art acquisitions until 1973. Prior to the opening of the Gallery these paintings were displayed around Parliament House, in Commonwealth offices, including diplomatic missions overseas, from 1912, the building of a permanent building to house the collection in Canberra was the major priority of the CAAB. Finally in 1965 the CAAB was able to persuade Prime Minister Robert Menzies to take the necessary to establish the gallery. On 1 November 1967, Prime Minister Harold Holt formally announced that the Government would construct the building, the design of the building was complicated by the difficulty in finalising its location, which was affected by the layout of the Parliamentary Triangle. The main problem was the site of the new Parliament House. In Canberras original Griffin 1912 plan, Parliament House was to be built on Camp Hill and he envisaged the Capitol to be either a general administration structure for popular receptions and ceremony or for housing archives and commemorating Australian Achievements. The Gallery would be built on Capital Hill, along with other cultural institutions. In 1968, Colin Madigan of Edwards Madigan Torzillo and Partners won the competition for the design, even though no design could be finalised, as the final site was now in doubt. Gorton proposed to Parliament in 1968 that it endorse Holfords lakeside site for the new Parliament House, as a result, the Government decided that the Gallery could not be built on Capital Hill. In 1971, the Government selected a 17-hectare site on the side of the proposed National Place. Even though it was now unlikely that the lakeside Parliament House would proceed, Madigans final design was based on a brief prepared by the National Capital Development Commission with input from James Johnson Sweeney and James Mollison. Mollison said in 1989 that the size and form of the building had been determined between Colin Madigan and J. J, Sweeney, and the National Capital Development Commission. I was not able to alter the appearance of the interior or exterior in any way. Its a very difficult building in which to make art look more important than the space in which you put the art. In November 1970, the CAAB recommended that he should be re-designated as assistant director, in May 1971, following Gortons fall from power, the Government endorsed Madigans sketches for the building. The new Prime Minister, William McMahon announced the appointment of Mollison as Acting Director of the NGA in October 1971, tenders for construction were called in November 1972, just before the McMahon governments defeat in the December 1972 election

4.
Moors murders
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The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. The body of a victim, Keith Bennett, is also suspected to be buried there. The police were aware of only three killings, those of Edward Evans, Lesley Ann Downey and John Kilbride. The investigation was reopened in 1985, after Brady was reported in the press as having confessed to the murders of Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett. Brady and Hindley were taken separately to Saddleworth Moor to assist the police in their search for the graves and she died in 2002, aged 60. Brady was declared insane in 1985, since when he has been confined in the high-security Ashworth Hospital. He has made it clear that he wishes never to be released, the trial judge, Mr Justice Fenton Atkinson, described Brady and Hindley in his closing remarks as two sadistic killers of the utmost depravity. The full extent of Brady and Hindleys crimes did not come to light until their confessions in 1985, as both had until then maintained their innocence. Their first victim was 16-year-old Pauline Reade, a neighbour of Hindleys who disappeared on her way to a dance at the British Railways Club in Gorton, Manchester and that evening, Brady told Hindley that he wanted to commit his perfect murder. Brady and Hindley provided different accounts of the murder, driving down Gorton Lane, Brady saw a young girl walking towards them, and signalled Hindley to stop, which she did not do until she had passed the girl. Brady drew up alongside on his motorbike, demanding to know why she had not offered the girl a lift, to which Hindley replied that she recognised her as Marie Ruck, a near neighbour of her mother. Shortly after 8,00 pm, continuing down Froxmer Street, Brady spotted a girl wearing a blue coat and white high-heeled shoes walking away from them. Hindley recognised the girl as Pauline Reade, a friend of her younger sister, Reade got into the van with Hindley, who then asked if she would mind helping to search for an expensive glove she had lost on Saddleworth Moor. Reade said she was in no hurry, and agreed. At 16, Pauline Reade was older than Marie Ruck, and Hindley realised that there would be less of a hue, when the van reached the moor, Hindley stopped and Brady arrived shortly afterwards on his motorcycle. She introduced him to Reade as her boyfriend, and said that he had come to help find the missing glove. Hindley claimed Brady took Reade onto the moor while Hindley waited in the van, after about 30 minutes Brady returned alone, and took Hindley to the spot where Reade lay dying

5.
Mary, mother of Jesus
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Mary, also known by various titles, styles and honorifics, was a 1st-century Galilean Jewish woman of Nazareth and the mother of Jesus, according to the New Testament and the Quran. The gospels of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament and the Quran describe Mary as a virgin, the miraculous birth took place when she was already betrothed to Joseph and was awaiting the concluding rite of marriage, the formal home-taking ceremony. She married Joseph and accompanied him to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, the Gospel of Luke begins its account of Marys life with the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced her divine selection to be the mother of Jesus. According to canonical gospel accounts, Mary was present at the crucifixion and is depicted as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. According to the Catholic and Orthodox teaching, at the end of her life her body was assumed directly into Heaven. Mary has been venerated since Early Christianity, and is considered by millions to be the most meritorious saint of the religion and she is claimed to have miraculously appeared to believers many times over the centuries. The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches believe that Mary, there is significant diversity in the Marian beliefs and devotional practices of major Christian traditions. The Roman Catholic Church holds distinctive Marian dogmas, namely her status as the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her perpetual virginity, many Protestants minimize Marys role within Christianity, based on the argued brevity of biblical references. Mary also has a position in Islam, where one of the longer chapters of the Quran is devoted to her. Marys name in the manuscripts of the New Testament was based on her original Aramaic name ܡܪܝܡ‎. The English name Mary comes from the Greek Μαρία, which is a form of Μαριάμ. Both Μαρία and Μαριάμ appear in the New Testament, in Christianity, Mary is commonly referred to as the Virgin Mary, in accordance with the belief that she conceived Jesus miraculously through the Holy Spirit without her husbands involvement. The three main titles for Mary used by the Orthodox are Theotokos, Aeiparthenos as confirmed in the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, Catholics use a wide variety of titles for Mary, and these titles have in turn given rise to many artistic depictions. For example, the title Our Lady of Sorrows has inspired such masterpieces as Michelangelos Pietà, the title Theotokos was recognized at the Council of Ephesus in 431. However, this phrase in Greek, in the abbreviated form ΜΡ ΘΥ, is an indication commonly attached to her image in Byzantine icons. The Council stated that the Church Fathers did not hesitate to speak of the holy Virgin as the Mother of God, some Marian titles have a direct scriptural basis. For instance, the title Queen Mother has been given to Mary since she was the mother of Jesus, the scriptural basis for the term Queen can be seen in Luke 1,32 and the Isaiah 9,6. Queen Mother can be found in 1 Kings 2, 19-20 and Jeremiah 13, other titles have arisen from reported miracles, special appeals or occasions for calling on Mary

6.
Rudy Giuliani
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Rudolph William Louis Rudy Giuliani is an American lawyer, businessman, public speaker, former mayor of New York City, and an informal adviser on cybersecurity to the White House. Politically a Democrat, then an Independent in the 1970s, Giuliani prosecuted pivotal cases against the American Mafia, and against corrupt corporate financiers. Within several years, Giuliani was widely credited for major improvements in the quality of life. While still Mayor, Giuliani ran for the U. S. Senate in 2000, however, in 2002, Giuliani founded Giuliani Partners, acquired and later sold Giuliani Capital Advisors, and joined a Texas firm while opening a Manhattan office for the firm renamed Bracewell & Giuliani. Giuliani was considered a candidate for New York Governor in 2010. Giuliani declined all races, and instead remained in the business sector, on January 12,2017, then President-elect Trump named Giuliani his informal cybersecurity adviser. He was raised a Roman Catholic, Harold Giuliani, a plumber and a bartender, had trouble holding a job, and was convicted of felony assault and robbery, serving time in Sing Sing. After his release he worked as an enforcer for his brother-in-law Leo DAvanzo, the family lived in East Flatbush, Brooklyn until Harold died of prostate cancer in 1981, after which time Helen moved to Manhattans Upper East Side. Helen was featured in a commercial to promote her son in the 1993 Mayoral Election. In 1951, when Giuliani was seven, his family moved from Brooklyn to Garden City South, later, he commuted back to Brooklyn to attend Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, graduating in 1961 with an 85 percent average. Giuliani attended Manhattan College in Riverdale, Bronx, where he majored in science with a minor in philosophy. There he considered becoming a priest, Giuliani was elected president of his class in his sophomore year, but was not re-elected in his junior year. He joined the Phi Rho Pi fraternity, Giuliani started his political life as a Democrat. He volunteered for Robert F. Kennedys presidential campaign in 1968 and he also worked as a Democratic Party committeeman on Long Island in the mid-1960s, and voted for George McGovern for president in 1972. Upon graduation, Giuliani clerked for Judge Lloyd Francis MacMahon, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York, Giuliani did not serve in the military during the Vietnam War. His conscription was deferred while he was enrolled at Manhattan College, upon graduation from the latter in 1968, he was classified by the Selective Service System as 1-A, available for military service. He applied for a deferment but was rejected, in 1970, Giuliani received a high draft lottery number, he was not called up for service although by then he had been reclassified 1-A. In 1970, Giuliani joined the United States Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York, in 1973, he was named Chief of the Narcotics Unit and became executive U. S. attorney

7.
Damien Hirst
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Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the known as the Young British Artists. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly the United Kingdoms richest living artist, during the 1990s his career was closely linked with the collector Charles Saatchi, but increasing frictions came to a head in 2003 and the relationship ended. Death is a theme in Hirsts works. He became famous for a series of artworks in which animals are preserved—sometimes having been dissected—in formaldehyde. The best known of these was The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living and he has also made spin paintings, created on a spinning circular surface, and spot paintings, which are rows of randomly coloured circles created by his assistants. In September 2008, he took a move for a living artist by selling a complete show, Beautiful Inside My Head Forever, at Sothebys by auction. Hirst was born Damien Steven Brennan in Bristol and grew up in Leeds and he never met his father, with his mother marrying his stepfather when he was 2 and divorcing 10 years later. His stepfather was reportedly a motor mechanic, Hirsts mother who was from an Irish Catholic background worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau, and has stated that she lost control of her son when he was young. He was arrested on two occasions for shoplifting, however, Hirst sees her as someone who would not tolerate rebellion, she cut up his bondage trousers and heated one of his Sex Pistols vinyl records on the cooker to turn it into a fruit bowl. He says, If she didnt like how I was dressed and she did, though, encourage his liking for drawing, which was his only successful educational subject. His art teacher at Allerton Grange School pleaded for Hirst to be allowed to enter the sixth form and he was refused admission to Jacob Kramer School of Art when he first applied, but attended the college after a subsequent successful application to the Foundation Diploma course. He went to an exhibition of work by Francis Davison, staged by Julian Spalding at the Hayward Gallery in 1983. Davison created abstract collages from torn and cut coloured paper which, Hirst said, blew me away, and which he modelled his own work on for the next two years. He worked for two years on London building sites, then studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, although again he was refused a place the first time he applied. In 2007, Hirst was quoted as saying of An Oak Tree by Goldsmiths senior tutor, Michael Craig-Martin, That piece is, I think, I still cant get it out of my head. While a student, Hirst had a placement at a mortuary and he gained sponsorship from the London Docklands Development Corporation. The show was visited by Charles Saatchi, Norman Rosenthal and Nicholas Serota, Hirsts own contribution to the show consisted of a cluster of cardboard boxes painted with household paint

8.
Shark
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Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorpha and are the group to the rays. Under this broader definition, the earliest known sharks date back to more than 420 million years ago, acanthodians are often referred to as spiny sharks, though they are not part of Chondrichthyes proper, they are a paraphyletic assemblage leading to cartilaginous fish as a whole. Since then, sharks have diversified into over 500 species, Sharks are found in all seas and are common to depths of 2,000 metres. They generally do not live in freshwater although there are a few exceptions, such as the bull shark and the river shark. Sharks have a covering of dermal denticles that protects their skin from damage and they have numerous sets of replaceable teeth. Well-known species such as the white shark, tiger shark, blue shark, mako shark. Many shark populations are threatened by human activities, until the 16th century, sharks were known to mariners as sea dogs. The etymology of the shark is uncertain. One theory is that it derives from the Yucatec Maya word xok, however, the Middle English Dictionary records an isolated occurrence of the word shark in a letter written by Thomas Beckington in 1442, which rules out a New World etymology. Evidence for the existence of sharks dates from the Ordovician period, 450–420 million years ago, before land vertebrates existed and before many plants had colonized the continents. Only scales have been recovered from the first sharks and not all agree that these are from true sharks. The oldest generally accepted shark scales are from about 420 million years ago, the first sharks looked very different from modern sharks. The majority of sharks can be traced back to around 100 million years ago. Most fossils are of teeth, often in large numbers, partial skeletons and even complete fossilized remains have been discovered. Estimates suggest that sharks grow tens of thousands of teeth over a lifetime, the teeth consist of easily fossilized calcium phosphate, an apatite. When a shark dies, the decomposing skeleton breaks up, scattering the apatite prisms, preservation requires rapid burial in bottom sediments. Among the most ancient and primitive sharks is Cladoselache, from about 370 million years ago, which has been found within Paleozoic strata in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee

9.
Tracey Emin
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Tracey Emin, CBE, RA is an English contemporary artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin produces work in a variety of media including drawing, painting, sculpture, film, photography, neon text, once the enfant terrible of the Young British Artists in the 1980s, Tracey Emin is now a Royal Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts. The same year, she gained media exposure when she swore multiple times in a state of drunkenness on a live discussion programme called The Death of Painting on British television. In 1999, Emin had her first solo exhibition in the United States at Lehmann Maupin Gallery, the artwork featured used condoms and blood-stained underwear. Emins covers a variety of different media, including needlework and sculpture, drawing, video and installation, photography and painting. In December 2011, she was appointed Professor of Drawing at the Royal Academy, with Fiona Rae, Emin lives in Spitalfields, east London. Emin was born in Croydon, part of Surrey, to an English mother of Romanichal descent, Emins paternal great-grandfather had reportedly been a Sudanese slave in the Ottoman Empire. Via her father, she is of Turkish Cypriot descent, Emin suffered an unreported rape at the age of 13 while living in Margate, citing assaults in the area as what happened to a lot of girls. Her work has been analysed within the context of early adolescent and childhood abuse and she studied fashion at Medway College of Design. There she met expelled student Billy Childish and was associated with The Medway Poets, Emin and Childish were a couple until 1987, during which time she was the administrator for his small press, Hangman Books, which published Childishs confessional poetry. In 1984 she studied printing at Maidstone Art College, which she has described as one of the most influential periods of her life. In 1995 she was interviewed in the Minky Manky show catalogue by Carl Freedman and it was more a time, going to Maidstone College of Art, hanging around with Billy Childish, living by the River Medway. In 1987, Emin moved to London to study at the Royal College of Art, after graduation, she had two traumatic abortions and those experience led her to destroy all the art she had produced in graduate school and later described the period as emotional suicide. Her influences included Edvard Munch and Egon Schiele, and for a time she studied philosophy at Birkbeck, One of the paintings that survives from her time at Royal College of Art is Friendship, which is in the Royal College of Art Collection. Additionally, a series of photographs from her work that were not destroyed were displayed as part of My Major Retrospective. In November 1993, Emin had her first solo show at White Cube, in 1995 Freedman curated the show Minky Manky at the South London Gallery. Emin has said, At that time Sarah was quite famous, Carl said to me that I should make some big work as he thought the small-scale stuff I was doing at the time wouldnt stand up well. Making that work was my way at getting back at him, the result was her tent Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, which was first exhibited in the show

10.
Marc Quinn
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Marc Quinn is a contemporary visual artist. He is a member of the group known as the Young British Artists. Quinn has used not only conventional sculpture material, but also blood, ice and faeces, quinns oeuvre displays a preoccupation with the mutability of the body and the dualisms that define human life—spiritual and physical, surface and depth, cerebral and sexual. Quinn was born in London in 1964 and he studied history and the history of art at Robinson College, Cambridge. He worked as an assistant to the sculptor Barry Flanagan, Quinn began to exhibit in the early 1990s. He was the first artist represented by Jay Jopling, and his work was exhibited in Charles Saatchis Sensation, Quinn has exhibited exhibitions including Sonsbeek 93, Arnhem, Give and Take, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Statements 7, 50th Venice Biennale and Gwangju Biennale. Quinns White Elephant was purchased by art collector and artist Amanda Eliasch, in 1999, Quinn began a series of marble sculptures of amputees as a way of re-reading the aspirations of Greek and Roman statuary and their depictions of an idealised whole. Self is a sculpture of the artists head made from 5 litres of his own blood, taken from his body over a period of five months. Described by Quinn as a moment on lifesupport, the work is carefully maintained in a refrigeration unit. Quinn makes a new version of Self every five years, each of which documents Quinn’s own aging and it was purchased by Charles Saatchi in 1991 for £13,000, who displayed it in the Sensation exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1997. There were rumors that the piece had melted, but Saatchi dispelled those rumors when he exhibited it at his new gallery in London in 2003. In April 2005 he sold it to Steven A. Cohen, Cohen displayed it at his hedge funds headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. The National Portrait Gallery in London acquired Self 2006, purchased through The Art Fund and his next important piece in terms of his public profile was the frozen garden he made for Miuccia Prada in 2000, installed at Fondazione Prada in Milan, Italy. A whole garden full of plants which could never grow together kept in cryogenic suspension, in interview, Quinn explained how this worked, When working with the frozen material, it’s like doing an experiment—different things come out of it. When you freeze something, it dries up. To avoid that, you have to stop the air from getting to the object and you can do this by casing it in silicone. His portrait of John E. Sulston, who won the Nobel prize in 2002 for sequencing the genome on the Human Genome Project, is in the National Portrait Gallery. It consists of bacteria containing Sulstons DNA in agar jelly, the portrait was made by our standard methods for DNA cloning, writes Sulston

11.
Poly(methyl methacrylate)
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The same material can be utilised as a casting resin, in inks and coatings, and has many other uses. Chemically, it is the polymer of methyl methacrylate. PMMA is an alternative to polycarbonate when extreme strength is not necessary. Additionally, PMMA does not contain the potentially harmful bisphenol-A subunits found in polycarbonate and it is often preferred because of its moderate properties, easy handling and processing, and low cost. The first acrylic acid was created in 1843, methacrylic acid, derived from acrylic acid, was formulated in 1865. The reaction between acid and methanol results in the ester methyl methacrylate. In 1877 the German chemist Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig discovered the process that turns methyl methacrylate into polymethyl methacrylate. In 1933, the brand name Plexiglas was patented and registered by another German chemist, in 1936 Imperial Chemical Industries began the first commercially viable production of acrylic safety glass. During World War II both Allied and Axis forces used acrylic glass for submarine periscopes and aircraft windshields, canopies, common orthographic stylings include polymethyl methacrylate and polymethylmethacrylate. The full chemical name is poly, although often called simply acrylic, acrylic can also refer to other polymers or copolymers containing polyacrylonitrile. The other notable names include, Acrylite, a trademark of Evonik Cyro since 1976 Lucite, a trademark of DuPont, first registered in 1937 R-Cast. Founded in 1987 after spinning off from Reynolds & Taylor and they specialize in large scale and thick monolithic acrylic. Plexiglas, a trademark of ELF Atochem, now a subsidiary of Arkema in the US, generally, radical initiation is used, but anionic polymerization of PMMA can also be performed. To produce 1 kg of PMMA, about 2 kg of petroleum is needed, PMMA produced by radical polymerization is atactic and completely amorphous. The glass transition temperature of atactic PMMA is 105 °C, PMMA is thus an organic glass at room temperature, i. e. it is below its Tg. The forming temperature starts at the transition temperature and goes up from there. All common molding processes may be used, including molding, compression molding. The highest quality PMMA sheets are produced by casting, but in this case

The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. It has a unique …

Image: Burlington House

A 19th century illustration of the Royal Academy

Satirical drawing of Sir William Chambers, one of the founders, trying to slay the 8-headed hydra of the Incorporated Society of Artists

Study for Henry Singleton's painting The Royal Academicians assembled in their council chamber to adjudge the Medals to the successful students in Painting, Sculpture, Architecture and Drawing, which hangs in the Royal Academy. Ca. 1793.